IMPORTANT NOTICE to all valued readers:
Reading the same content on So called PostChronicle or tPCtrends,
tPCtrending,tPCtrender, funtuna, newstrem, latestnewser,
PingsPedia, Oddepia, wallStreeit, Wal-Martt, PicturesPortal and todaynewsgazette_blogspot_com
likes BlogSpots?
It is probably because they ripped off TodayNewsGazette.Com

Comments Off

Bernie Ebbers Serving 25 Year Prison Sentence

Advertisements

Published: July 29, 2013
By
Staff

Bernie Ebbers Serving 25 Year Prison Sentence, Weeping in court as he learned his fate, former WorldCom boss Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday for leading the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. It was the toughest sentence imposed on an executive since the fall of Enron in 2001 touched off a record-breaking wave of business scandals.

Even with possible time off for good behavior, Ebbers, 63 and with what his lawyers describe as serious heart problems, would remain locked up until 2027, when he would be 85.

The sentence came four months after Ebbers was convicted of overseeing the $11 billion WorldCom fraud – much of it a pattern of chalking up expenses as long-term capital expenditures, which are classified as assets.

CNBC and other news organizations originally reported the sentence as between 30 years and life in prison. However, Ebbers’ attorneys were allowed to speak before the final sentence was handed down and the judge ultimately decided to render a final, 25-year verdict.

Ebbers, an imposingly tall man with buzzed white hair, leaned forward in his chair and cried, sniffling audibly, after Judge Barbara Jones of U.S. District Court in Manhattan read his penalty.

“I find that a sentence of anything less would not reflect the seriousness of this crime,” the judge said.

Defense lawyer Reid Weingarten had asked for leniency, mentioning Ebbers’ heart condition and his considerable, often anonymous, charitable works, cited repeatedly in 169 letters sent to the judge.

“If you live 60-some-odd years, if you have an unblemished record, if you have endless numbers of people who attest to your goodness, doesn’t that count? Doesn’t that count particularly on this day?” Weingarten said.

The judge could have imposed an even stricter sentence had she found that Ebbers committed perjury when he testified in his own defense.

Video: Worker weighs in On the stand, Ebbers told jurors he never knew of the fraud. Asked about documents he reviewed that showed highly suspicious financial figures that tipped off the fraud, Ebbers said, “I just didn’t see it.”

Jones said it was not clear Ebbers had committed perjury, and said jurors could have believed his testimony and still convicted if they believed he intentionally looked the other way as the fraud took place.

The judge also heard briefly from Henry J. Bruen Jr., a former high-ranking sales executive at WorldCom who lost his job in 2003 and said he has been unable to find work since, putting him through “sheer hell.”

“Where do I get my life savings back from?” he demanded. “Or my career reinvigorated?”

Jones did not impose a fine or seek restitution, partly because of an agreement late last month under which Ebbers will forfeit nearly all his personal assets to settle a civil suit filed by aggrieved investors.

Under that settlement, Ebbers’ wife will be left about $50,000 of Ebbers’ assets and a modest home in Jackson, Miss. A far more lavish family home in Brookhaven, Miss., will be sold off as part of the settlement.

“Simply put, justice was served,” said New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the lead plaintiff in the civil suit against WorldCom, which has racked up $6 billion in settlements.

The 25-year term is the harshest yet as corporate executives have been paraded through American courtrooms in a series of eye-popping business scandals that have cost investors untold billions.

A former finance executive of Dynegy Inc., Jamie Olis, is serving 24 years

in prison for his role in a fraudulent accounting scheme at the Enron-linked energy company.

_________________________________________Please feel free to send if you have any questions regarding this post , you can contact on